Art production in the Jewellery Quarter: past and present

This is the third Assay Office Birmingham and Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham Day School.

Assay Office Birmingham was formed in 1773 as a result of a successful campaign led by Matthew Boulton, the industrialist, entrepreneur and silversmith. It is the largest Assay Office in the world and continues to carry out its statutory duty of Hallmarking articles manufactured in platinum, gold, silver and palladium. A series of speakers explore the Quarter’s artistic history, heritage and production.

Programme

10:00 Welcome and Introduction, Dr Malcolm Dick, including a tribute to Brian Jones from the Pen Room, Shena Mason and Dr Francesca Carnevali, University of Birmingham

10.15 Sally Hoban, an update from Assay Office Birmingham

10.30 Martin Ellis, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, on jewellery and other decorative arts objects from their collections.

15.00 Contemporary depictions of the Jewellery Quarter – David Brammeld and Joanne Powell

Speaker profiles

Dr Malcolm Dick is Director of the Centre for West is Director of the Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham and Editor-in-Chief of History West Midlands www.historywm.com

Sally Hoban is Heritage & Training Officer at Assay Office Birmingham and a design, antiques and art condultant. She has recently completed a PhD on women designers of The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Midlands.

Martin Ellis is Curator of Applied Art at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Larry Hanks has been a pen collector since has been a pen collector since 1990. He was one of the founder members of the Birmingham Pen Trade Heritage Association, which opened the Pen Museum in 2001.

Brendan Flynn was Senior Curator of Visual Art at was Senior Curator of Visual Art at Art at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. He retired in 2011 and is now Research Curator for the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.

David Brammeld is an award-winning Staffordshire is an award-winning Staffordshire artist whose subject matter comes from his fascination with the changing urban built environment and the way in which it affects our daily lives. See www.davidbrammeld.com

Joanne Powell is a Worcestershire artist and an elected member of the RBSA, the Society of Women Artists, and the Birmingham and Midland Galleries in West Bromwich.